Mach-E charging with off grid inverter power?

[SpaceEVDriver]

I charged my Mustang directly from my solar power many times at my previous home. I have a Sol-Ark inverter/converter that receives power from the panels and feeds the home/battery storage/grid. My 240-volt, ChargePoint Flex EVSE for the Mustang had no trouble with this setup. However, the Sol-Ark is a pure sine wave inverter.

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[Mach-Lee]

Ok, would like someone with more electrical knowledge than me to reply and this could help other EV users. Currently trying to get my Champion 3650/ 4550 generator to charge 240v/ 30 amps to my Mach E with the Ford Mobile charger. It appears to not be working- but also not showing any errors and doesn't pop the breakers on the generator. Doing this, prior to plugging the charger to the car, the mobile charger LED turns blue after it boots. When attempting to charge, the Mach E also appears to be happy. It flashes the port ring as it is charging- but after 20 minutes on the generator- no % or miles have been added. I have used this method with my 240v circuit in my house and my Mach e successfully charges. Now to add another tidbit to this story- I once ran out of battery a 1/4 mile from home. Using this mobile charger in the 120v- the car charged as designed from this generator. I needed a couple minutes and had plenty of battery to get home (it oddly jumped to like 5% in a couple of minutes on the same generator at 120). As the guys above posted, is this proving the THD of the generator is the problem and too high? Does THD for 240 play a bigger role than at 120? My battery today was at 75%. After commuting tomorrow and having the battery under 20%, I may try the generator again. Would a different brand charger make a difference or is this something built into the Mach E? Here is my generator THD value:

"Champion portable generators will output an industry standard total harmonic distortion (THD) rating of about 12%-20% depending on load applied. They will produce a sine wave, not a modified or square wave. This is perfectly acceptable for running common commodities found in your home such as TVs, computers, your appliances, etc.

THD is a measure of the deviation of a sine wave from a "perfect" sine wave. All electricity, including line electricity, has measurable THD.

If you have a specific item that requires less than 5% THD such as a UPS style battery backup, a pellet stove, or high efficiency furnace control board, we recommend purchasing a Champion Inverter Generator (sizes from 1600W to 3500W); Champion DH Series Open Frame Inverter (sizes from 3500W to 8750W) or a Champion Home Standby Generator (range from 8.5KW to 14KW); all units provide a less than 5% THD.

Please consult your specific appliance manufacturer to determine if the appliance requires low THD (less than 5%) to operate properly."

According to what I found, that is a 120V generator only, not 240V. Since the mobile charger is detecting 120V, it will charge at 12A / 1.4 kW Level 1 speeds (so it was charging, just very slowly). You need a 9600W 240V generator to use the mobile charger at full speed.

 

[Maquis]

Ok, would like someone with more electrical knowledge than me to reply and this could help other EV users. Currently trying to get my Champion 3650/ 4550 generator to charge 240v/ 30 amps to my Mach E with the Ford Mobile charger. It appears to not be working- but also not showing any errors and doesn't pop the breakers on the generator. Doing this, prior to plugging the charger to the car, the mobile charger LED turns blue after it boots. When attempting to charge, the Mach E also appears to be happy. It flashes the port ring as it is charging- but after 20 minutes on the generator- no % or miles have been added. I have used this method with my 240v circuit in my house and my Mach e successfully charges. Now to add another tidbit to this story- I once ran out of battery a 1/4 mile from home. Using this mobile charger in the 120v- the car charged as designed from this generator. I needed a couple minutes and had plenty of battery to get home (it oddly jumped to like 5% in a couple of minutes on the same generator at 120). As the guys above posted, is this proving the THD of the generator is the problem and too high? Does THD for 240 play a bigger role than at 120? My battery today was at 75%. After commuting tomorrow and having the battery under 20%, I may try the generator again. Would a different brand charger make a difference or is this something built into the Mach E? Here is my generator THD value:

"Champion portable generators will output an industry standard total harmonic distortion (THD) rating of about 12%-20% depending on load applied. They will produce a sine wave, not a modified or square wave. This is perfectly acceptable for running common commodities found in your home such as TVs, computers, your appliances, etc.

THD is a measure of the deviation of a sine wave from a "perfect" sine wave. All electricity, including line electricity, has measurable THD.

If you have a specific item that requires less than 5% THD such as a UPS style battery backup, a pellet stove, or high efficiency furnace control board, we recommend purchasing a Champion Inverter Generator (sizes from 1600W to 3500W); Champion DH Series Open Frame Inverter (sizes from 3500W to 8750W) or a Champion Home Standby Generator (range from 8.5KW to 14KW); all units provide a less than 5% THD.

Please consult your specific appliance manufacturer to determine if the appliance requires low THD (less than 5%) to operate properly."

There is a big thread about this on the Lightning forum. Guy had the same problem with a Duromax generator. Conclusion is that only an inverter generator (low THD) will work.

 

[brianswiger]

Ok, good news (sorta). I purchased a 9000/ 7250 Champion Inverter Generator (model#201067) from Home Depot. It is $1273. The shipping only took two days. The manual says it is rated at 240v/ 30.2 amps and 120v/ 60.4. I chose this one for its low rated THD and the 30.2 amps/ 240v.

The bad? With the Ford mobile charger, which some say on here it only pulls 30 amps on 240v, it overloads the generator. So either the mobile charger in facts pulls over 30 amps or this generator doesn't support 30.2 amps. I am guessing the charger pulls more than 30. My Mach E was at 74% when I started charging. Another negative is the generator weighs 150 lbs. My older 4500 generator weighs 75 lbs and lifting it is no problem. The new generator adds electric start (battery, starter, etc).

The good? It worked with the low THD. At least on 120v and it works on 240v for a few minutes and then overlods. The electric start is nice. The generator does have an LCD screen and you do get some good data. It comes with a 14-50R outlet. Neutral is bonded with this unit. This big generator will also act as back up power to my home and I may use it at the race track- even welding with it will be no problem. It is pretty quiet, but not ultra quiet. It is slightly louder than a lawn mower.

The way forward... last night I ordered a 24 amp EV charger on Amazon for under $200. Honestly, running the generator at 100% for 240v/ 30 amps probably isn't wise anyway and the 24 amps will allow about 10 amps of ceiling on 120v to power other devices when charging my Mach E. The 24 amps should add about 15-18 miles per hour on the Mach E.

Once the 24 amp charger arrives today, I will post a video of the setup working on 240v and how many miles per hour the setup adds to the car. Thankful for these forums to help learn these details about EV charging. Please research the risks about using this setup to charge your EV and the risks to yourself.

 

[brianswiger]

Video showing 240v/ 24 amps success. The adjustable amp charger was on Amazon $190 (with coupon but now $260)

Video


Charger
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C1N386GG?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

Inverter Generator
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Champio...ter-Generator-with-CO-Shield-201067/318812022

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